Scars
by Suadade
Summary: Every life is riddled with scars, but some only the closest of friends can ever see. Team Seven has experienced more tragedy than most yet some marks life has left on them are hidden to all but one another.


_No matter how wonderful and simple life may be, it will always leave scars. Sometimes they're large and ugly and every stranger you meet can see them, but sometimes they're faint lines in the skin that only those closest to you can find. The easiest life still leaves scars, and a shinobi's life is never easy. _

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Some of their scars were more visible, giant ropes of raised flesh marring otherwise smooth skin.

No one speaks of the Uchiha clan around Sasuke. They know better. The last time someone had mentioned the Uchiha manor and wondered why Sasuke didn't live there that person had been trapped in the mangekyou sharingon and a table and most of its chairs were left as dust. The memories of all that had died there, all to save _his_ life, were always going to be too fresh and raw to visit. Once a year, on that fateful day, he goes there before the dawn. He dusts the place from top to bottom and lights incense in all the shrines in all the homes. He walks around the dark stains left by pools of blood and he lets his fingers trail delicately down the dark splatters on the walls of those that died fighting. He says a small prayer for all those that died at his brother's hands, and even for the brother that died at his own hands, and then he walks home in the pre-dawn light of a new day. No one expected him to forget them.

Occasionally Naruto's happy demeanor cracks and his smile falters. His friends don't press him when he's missing for a day or two. Despite a cheery nature and an unbelievably optimistic personality, sometimes the loneliness of Naruto's childhood crashes upon him. After being withdrawn during conversations with friends or missions with other shinobi, Naruto would just disappear. His friends knew he visited the graves of the parents he had never known, lying fresh flowers and having silent conversations that lasted hours. After that he would vanish into the forest to walk. Sometimes he was gone a few hours, once a whole week. He walked until the feelings of despair and hopelessness left him. He walked until he was himself again. Then he turned around and came home. No one mentioned seeing him in the flower shop, in the cemetery, or leaving the village. They let his moments of weakness pass without judgement and they all carried on with their lives. No one expected him to be strong all the time.

With a happy childhood and family that loved her the perfect amount, Sakura resorted to sorting out the mess her best friends lives had been and still were. When Sasuke left and abandoned Naruto, she left and abandoned Naruto while at the same time was abandoned by Sasuke. She lived their lives with them, silently beside both of them every step they took since becoming a team. When Sasuke walked home from his yearly homage to his clan, Sakura walked beside him. When Naruto came back from his excursions he met her outside the gates and received the genuine and heartfelt hug he needed but would never ask for. The only time she was truly frantic was when something happened to her teammates. The boys did grand things and received well earned recognition, but she was the one hidden behind the scenes making sure they were eating their vegetables and not killing one another. Sasuke and Naruto gave each other something to live for, but Sakura gave them a life. She provided them with the only stability they ever really had. No one had expected her to be so important.

Other scars they bore were more hidden, and more permanent; thin, faint lines that can only be seen from close up or spots that ached in the rain.

The day Sasuke was brought back to Konoha had almost ended in tragedy. The squad that found Sasuke came upon him in terrible shape, he plodded towards Konoha blindly, barely staying upright. The second they neared him his Sharingon had activated and he took up a defensive posture. They knew if he attempted to use any amount of chakra he would probably die because he was already so far past his limits, it was a wonder he was even awake, let alone trying to fight. A message was sent to the Hokage with a question: capture, contain, or kill? Needless to say, none of the rookie nine were in that squad. Not much later team seven burst from the trees and slowly walked towards Sasuke. He refused to let Kakashi any nearer to him than the original squad. Sakura was allowed to the edge of a striking distance. Only Naruto was able to walk all the way to his friend and pluck the sword from his hands. Later Sasuke revealed that he remembered none of it, he had been dead on his feet. Even mostly unconscious he recognized the people surrounding him. Kakashi had been stopped because he would do what was right for all of Konoha. Sakura was stopped because she too would, in the end, put the safety of everyone before the safety of one. Naruto was allowed close because the thought that Sasuke might hurt anyone never even crossed his mind, and if Sasuke even tried, Naruto would just save everyone. Two years after returning and Naruto is the only one Sasuke willingly lets touch him on a regular basis, just because of how Naruto is, while he will tolerate all of rookie nine the occasional slap on the back or friendly punch on the arm, though he never initiates. It took several months before Sakura and Naruto convinced Sasuke to tell them why he permitted touch even less than he ever had before. They had all wondered why Sasuke suddenly and brutally killed Orochimaru and his followers, but they would have never have guessed that was why. No one but his closest friends would have noticed the way he still flinched slightly whenever someone accidently brushed against him.

If you asked a random citizen of Konoha what Naruto would afraid of, most would either seriously say that he wasn't afraid of anything or laugh that he was afraid of ramen running out. In truth, Naruto is terrified of being alone, or more specifically his friends leaving him. It was a fear that had begun in his lonely childhood and had only grown exponentially when Sasuke, his first and best friend, left him. He frequently had nightmares that his friends deserted him in favor of others or they secretly hated him for housing the nine tailed demon fox. His friends knew he was always worried when they were away on missions or when he hadn't seen them in a while, but they never guessed how deep seated the fear was. One day he had fallen asleep reading information for a lengthy mission while at Sasuke's apartment, Sasuke also going on the mission and therefore reading the reports as well, and started dreaming. Initially Sasuke had been amused by the blonde as he muttered and twitched in his sleep, but then Naruto had woken up and burst into tears. Before Sasuke could blink Naruto had his arms flung around the other and was sobbing into his shirt. Sasuke, being completely unprepared or this, just sat there with a slightly shocked expression. Naruto only stopped crying when he wrenched a promise never to leave suddenly again from Sasuke, then Sasuke demanded to know what had prompted the change in the happy boy. Once Sasuke had found out he told Sakura who circulated to their friends that-while it was never _ever_ to be mentioned-jokes about leaving or making fun of Naruto for being a vessel for the demon fox were out of line and anyone who told one would be severely punished by Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto knew his friends would never leave him, but the nagging voice at the back of his head always asked a sly "are you sure?" After every solo mission Sasuke always came to let Naruto know he was back first and foremost, even before washing the blood off his weapons. He knew this fear was mostly his fault and that he was the one Naruto was still the most afraid of leaving again. No one but his closest friends would have noticed the tension that was in his every movement from the minute a friend left on a mission til the moment they came back through the gate.

Sakura knew her life was better than that of her teammates. She had never been subjected to violence and hate because of something she couldn't control. She had never watched her family be slaughtered nor killed the last of her kin. Her teammates had grown up in a world of pain and death, and while they received the first and dealt both out on a regular basis, they never had to deal with the aftermath. Injuries and death are part of every day life for a shinobi, and they learn to cope with that, but for a medic they're a part of every moment. You never know when someone will catch a kunai just wrong on a routine C rank mission and have to drop everything to stop their guts from spilling out and to repair the damage. Her boys never had to run into a patient's room as they arrive to the hospital and know upon seeing them that they will die, but try desperately to save them anyway. For all the death Naruto and Sasuke dealt out on missions, they never had to clean up after. They never had to recover corpses and spend hours trying to identify who all the horrific wounds from various jutsus covered. They never had to realize that the corpse they were looking at was that of a child, and adult in their law, but a _child_. They never had to knock on a door and have a face fall the moment they saw the hospital symbol. They never had to leave parents weeping uncontrollably for the child they had never wanted to be a shinobi. They never had to hand a charred hitai-ate to a woman holding a young child and watch the display of emotions. They never had to watch the way the woman's heart broke when the young child gurgled happily and reached innocently for the shiny object. Shinobi's lives were constantly on the line, and they accepted that, but families rarely did. Medics had to deal with what was left behind after a battle was won, and it was never glory or honor or praise. It was tears and anger and heartbreak. No one but her closest friends would have noticed the way she sometimes glanced at her hands out of the corner of her eye as if they were stained in the blood of all she couldn't save.

No one ever escapes life completely unscathed, especially not shinobi. Especially those with pasts like those of team seven. They all bear the scars of their lives; some so large and prominent and complete stranger could see and understand them, others so faint or hidden that only those as close as kin could ever see their mark.

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A/N I'm not really sure where this came from. It was sudden and unprompted and I was just thinking about how friends are the only ones that notice the little things one another do and only the closest of friends every figure out why.

Also (MAJOR CHAPTER 614 SPOILER)

I cannot get over Neji's death. I just can't. I refuse to accept it. I understand that he is most likely not going to come back to life, but I cannot accept his death. It was unbelievably sudden and beyond unexpected and he was one of my favorite characters, maybe even my favorite over all.


End file.
